white christianity?

05 - 04/17 /07:24

The overwhelming reality of 21stCentury Christianity is that it is non-white—and growing more so. A century ago 80% of professing Christians lived in Europe and North America. Christianity is now the world’s most multi-racial, global institution. Two big things are responsible for this demographic change.

First, throughout Christianity in the second-half of the 19thCentury there developed a broad and well-funded focus on foreign missions. Many organizations like China Inland Mission and the London Missionary Society arose organically (birthed and nourished by the Holy Spirit). Missionaries like Hudson Taylor and Dr Livingston became celebrities. The American Bible Society annually distributed up to 2,000,000 Bibles in 83 languages.

Second, the Great War (1914-1918) shattered European Christendom. Christians once again were killing Christians, only this time with industrial efficiency. Although military leaders in Europe feared the Christmas Truce would inhibit the war, politicians and governments beat down this outbreak of Christian charity. The result, seventeen million soldiers never returned home; seven million more were permanently disabled. If Christian nations could decimate each other what use was Christianity?

Consequently, during the 20thCentury, Europeans abandoned the church. In the 21stCentury, Americans are increasingly doing the same.

Today white Christians are far outnumbered by non-white believers. There are now more Christ-followers in Communist China than in the United States. Pew Research projects that by 2050 1 of every 3 Christians will be African. The liberal theology favored by the dwindling white Episcopalian denomination is condemned by its Anglican mother-church, the vast majority of whom live in Asia and Africa.

Meanwhile, 22% of Americans have come to reject any religious affiliation, 35% of Millennials. A decade ago secularists celebrated America’s declining Christian affiliation. But as Peter Beinart reports in The Atlantic, they’re having second thoughts. Americans who claim to be Christian but don’t participate in church are less hostile to gays. But they’re more hostile to African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and Muslims. According to research by Professor Knoll, University of Iowa (data supported by Sweden’s Uppsala University) the less professing Christians attend church, the more hostile they become towards immigrants—illegal and legal.

Pew Research reports that throughout the 2016 election year Mr Trump did best among evangelicals who shared one key trait: They seldom attend church. Conservative white Americans disengaged from church experience less economic success and more family breakdown. Unsurprisingly, they’ve grown more pessimistic and resentful. Cultural conservatives disengaged from church de-emphasize morality and religion. Instead they focus upon race and nation, sadly ignoring the claim of Jesus “God so loved the world… .” ~